human-user-guide-for-matthew.md

Human User Guide for Matthew McCullough

This is a living document that represents what I value and how it translates into our great work, together. It was inspired and contains elements of the resources listed at the conclusion of this document.

What matters most to Matthew?

When working with any colleague, I value promptness, work product quality, clear and brief communication, timeliness, collaboration, unique insights, and differing viewpoints. I value these behaviors because they have been frequently associated with successful projects, lower the stress of intense tasks, create a magnetism for other smart colleagues to join our team, create lasting value and positive impressions with clients, and overall, make hard work far more pleasant.

What communication patterns are most attractive to you?

1. WHAT: Brevity. Communicate in as few words as are absolutely necessary to get your point across to your audience.
   WHY: You are multiplying the benefit of time savings by each and every reader of your works.
2. WHAT: Hyperlinks. Hyperlink your writing as liberally as possible.
   WHY: It makes it easy for your audience to get context.

Rituals

1. WHAT: Time permissison. If there's a chance that you or I are on a call, the caller should try and text the recipient "Is now an ok time to talk for X minutes about Y?".
   WHY: It gives the recipient a chance to adjust. They can end their current call, defer until later, or grab a glass of water first thus saving the frustration of an unexpected call and coming to the call with more organized thoughts.
2. WHAT: Calendar transparency. I have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 🔥 time blocked off on my calendar.
   WHY: In the absence of stating where these live on my calendar, I expect people to guess. A part of my managerial mission is to create greater clarity of the state of all the variables that my colleagues have to deal with.
3. WHAT: Wait close by. I like to "come in for final approach" for a meeting and get very close to the meeting location an hour before the meeting.
   WHY: This reduces variables such as traffic, mass transit, security, weather, and address confusion.

What drives you nuts?

1. WHAT: Be prompt. Meeting attendees being late or running over.
   WHY: If you are unable to manage your time, what does this imply about your ability to manage other valuable efforts and resources?
2. WHAT: Own it. Making excuses for being late.
   WHY: You are in charge of you. You have the power to politely stand up, 3 minutes prior to the end of a meeting, and tell folks you want to be respectful and on time for your next meeting.
3. WHAT: Be proactive. Managing calendars at the last minute.
   WHY: It makes your calendar hygiene issues spill over onto the calendar planning of your colleagues.
4. WHAT: Mind the details. Not using the free/busy state of others prior to calling them or pulling them into a meeting.
   WHY: The signal that you can't be bothered to check the free/busy space of your colleague, prior to asking for some of their time.
5. WHAT: Manage your TODOs. Not maintaining a task list and having me chase you for status or to remind you of a task you accepted and own.
   WHY: This vastly increases the cost of getting the task done, lowers my trust in the person, and increases my TODO list and stress with the work items of other team members. It pulls us away from autonomy, trust, and decision-making at the edges.

What are your quirks?

1. WHAT: Be brief. I calendar my day in 15 minute increments.
   WHY: We can often do more with less. I'd like to begin with this mindset and expand out as needed. See Parkinson's law.
2. WHAT: Prioritize. I have over 800 items at any given time in my personal and work TODO list.
   WHY: Your mind is designed for having ideas, not holding them.
3. WHAT: Chat. I consider myself a nerd, but am ostensibly outgoing, and love to talk with others and learn more about their work and tactics.
   WHY: I get a dopamine rush from expanding the space of what I know I don't know. Then, knowing what I don't know lets me intentionally chose what to learn next.
4. WHAT: Intentional tool use. I believe Chat is our most mis-used communication tool at the company.
   WHY: I believe Chat's best use is for real time "unstructured" banter during the workday and during meetings for backchannel. It should not be a source of escalation or reference-able decisions. People use it as an interrupt-based escalation, and means to create false urgency when other communication streams such as notifications and emails are poorly managed.

How can people earn an extra gold star with you?

1. WHAT: The bar is high. Be reliable, consistent, and predictable. WHY: Human nature says you'll entrust greater responsibility to those who have earned it.
2. WHAT: Help me grow. Point out my mistakes and help me fix them. This includes code, spelling, pricing, logic, wording, and strategy. WHY: I crave help. I love collaboration. I value pairing. If you see something, say something™. You can open a pull request on any of my work products and will receive my thanks for doing so.

What are some of your long-time mantras?

1. WHAT: Shu, ha, ri. "Do one, pair on one, watch one." It is a 3-part model for safely teaching a technique to others. In short, a recipe for mentorship.
   WHY: Demonstrating, first, shows the right way to do something, if you are skilled at it. Then, you progress to working in a pair-programming fashion on the next iteration. Less support, but still supportive. Then you transition to a coach mode. You're watching, and can provide input, but you are not doing. The student has the ability to showcase what they've learned and remain open to refinement from the teacher. It also allows the teacher to use all of their senses to of perception, since their brain is not occupied with the doing.
2. WHAT: Early warnings. "It's OK to sometimes disappoint me, but please try not to surprise me."
   WHY: Sometimes we have to deal with some bad situations together. That's OK. That's teamwork. I'll stick with you. However, try to let me know as soon as possible. Drip me information, early, that a project is going off the rails, or that a collaboration isn't working out, a customer is starting to get disappointed, or we're at risk of losing a key account. I'll be able to give it thinking time, head space, and thus, likely suggest more thoughtful paths forward.
3. WHAT: Just say it. "Bad news ages like milk, not like cheese."
   WHY: Most bad news is most effectively mitigated, solved, or worked around when the right people know about it early. Don't wait to tell me. I'll help you steer clear of the rocky cliffs, if I'm able.

What qualities do you particularly value in people who work with you?

1. WHAT: Learn together. Ask me or someone else how something's done, if you don't know. It's a safe environment to learn anything. I don't want to be pushy with teaching. I believe in more pull, less push. WHY: There's 100 things I could possibly try to teach. However, I don't know which is most important to you. But I'm delighted to spend my time with you if you help call out a need.

What are some things that people might misunderstand about you that you should clarify?

1. WHAT: Modes. That I'm all about business. I am not.
   WHY: I just want to have clear modes of work and personal time. I work on computers during the day and balance that with playing with my kids, plants, animals, and lumber in my time away from electronic devices.

How do you coach people to do their best work and develop their talents?

1. WHAT: Forever learning. Be constantly curious.
   WHY: There are myriad ways to perform most tasks. The most ways you add to your tool belt, the more adaptable you'll be to any situation, and the more equipped to get good outcomes, no matter the circumstances.
2. WHAT: Think before acting. If something intense comes your way, try at all costs to let it simmer for 5 minutes at a minimum. Longer can be better. Write a draft.
   WHY: Sometimes, deciding not to send that letter is the best choice.

What’s the best way to communicate with you?

1. WHAT: Phased communications. Written first, followed by a brief video or phone call to round out any unclear points.
   WHY: This allows for the maximum thinking cycles on the topics, and then to surface just the critical points. Without this approach, folks end up in a reading session inside meetings, thus using up time in an inefficient way.

What’s the best way to convince you to do something?

1. WHAT: Data and justification. Show me data, examples, or write up a business case, pointing out the best/likely/worst cases.
   WHY: This demonstrates research, insight, and understanding of the problem domain, not just the overly optimistic and desired outcome (blinders on).

How do you like to give feedback?

1. WHAT: Signal feedback appetite. To persons that are frequently saying and demonstrating that they crave, accept, value, and act on feedback.
   WHY: There's little benefit to either party in giving feedback to unwilling recipients.

How do you like to get feedback?

1. WHAT: Continual feedback. Early and often. Written and verbal. Written first is best. Links or examples are best. Point me at a north star of what good looks like. Tell me about paths and persons I can use to learn how to improve.
   WHY: In the shuhari model of mastery, copying something excellent is an easy place to begin.
2. WHAT: Everyone is welcome. From anyone affected by my performance or behavior.
   WHY: My actions affect ICs, managers, my execs, our customers, and the business. I should desire feedback from them all.

Resources, Inspirations

1. A dinner discussion on this topic with one of GitHub's superusers/superfans at a large financial services company
2. A Linkedin post, How you revolutionize the way your team works together, from David Politis of BetterCloud